


Contrabutions to the AH.com Alternate Heresey Thread

by HarlequinR



Category: Horus Heresy - Various Authors, Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Own design legion & primrch, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-03 20:01:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19471144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarlequinR/pseuds/HarlequinR





	1. Legion Details

Primarch  
Aries Euxinos, the Corinthian, the Dawn Star, the Uncrowned Prince.  
  
Talent  
Catalyst of hope/inspiration against adversity.  
  
Homeworld  
Colchis  
  
Legio  
The XII, The Knights Errant.  
  
Gene-Seed  
Pure / stable  
  
Psychic Potential  
Below average, and commonly less powerfully expressed than in other Legions.  
  
Colours  
Burnished brass with iron trim. Battalion, Tercio and Company markings are on the left chest, knee and vambrace respectively. Officer status is indicated by a solid lateral crest and individual specialisation is shown by a coloured stripe on helm.  
  
Insignia  
A gold rams head in profile on black.  
  
Battle Cry  
_(led by officers)_ For those remembered.  
_(refrain by legionnaires)_ For those to come.  
  
Flagship  
_Unyielding Defiance_ \- A Dark Age relic-ship found within the Colchis system and most likely deposited during the Heavenfall event. Rediscovered shortly after the Emperor's arrival, and restored to service under the Primarch's supervision, the _Defiance_ may not have originally been built as a warship. The least heavily armed of the legion flagships, but among the most massive, the vessel possesses immense transport, cargo and hanger capacity, and is noted for its archeotech sensorium and communication arrays. Deployed in a combat support role during void engagements, and otherwise serving as the theater CIC for the 103nd Expeditionary Fleet’s operations.  
  
Fortress Monastery  
The Tower of Egrisi sits where that city once stood, the first to fall when ruin was visited upon Colchis. Squat and barrel bodied above ground, deep and unseen beneath, ringed by three walls each thick, tall and void shielded, it has been built to stand proof against the fate of its predecessor. The World's Crown it is known as by Colchis' people for it sits encased in carved granite in emulation of the broken circlet the Corinthian never donned.  
  
Here the Lord Commanders stand as Castellan, making judgements and rulings in Aries' name while he is departed and their Battalions rest, re-equipped, and help train new legionaries before returning to battle and discovery.  
  
Within can be found the Hall of Joy, where each world reclaimed for mankind is marked with a diamond set into the galactic map engraved upon the floor, and another grav-tethered amidst the holomap above. Visitors pass through the Processional Way that records each victory by the legion on wall panels of carved Terran stone. Stasis locked in the Arsenal's heart sits the capsule that held the infant primarch, and within the Apothecarium’s the vessel drank from on the day he was reunited with his father.  
  
Legion Organisation  
Maximum strength during Great Crusade 190, 000.  
  
The legion is divided into Battalions of 12, 000 led by a Lord Commander, Tercios of 3000 led by a Battle Captain, and Companies of 300 led by a Captain. No inherent ranking is connected to the numerical designation of units or officers. The Apothecarium, Librarium and Arsenal maintain their own ranks and internal organisation, and earmark potential recruits before their full initiation into the legion.  
  
Squads are organised on an ad-hoc basis by sergeants, but are commonly drawn from informal pools of legionnaires that have served under them previously and they know personally, often forming a Band in their own right.  
  
Bands are semi-official institutions within the Legion formed around shared rapport or experience and are an inheritance from pre-Imperial Colchian culture, where they provided mutual support in uncertainty and offered trust across boundaries of nation and rank. Existing both within and across the main organisational structure, these peer groups can be limited to a set number or initiate new members depending on their traditions and origen. It is possible, though rare, for a legionaire to be part of more than one band.  
  
Notable examples include the Band of the Few (Unification War veterans), the Silver Band (2:3 Tercio legionnaires who served under their beloved Battle Captain when he was a sergeant) and the Hateful Band (legionnaires that have been the sole survivor of their squad's demise).  
  
Two unique unit formations can be found in the twelfth legion’s ranks, the Shieldbearers and Rangers.  
  
The Sheildbearers form the Primarch's companion guard, exclusively clad in terminator plate and equipped with wide brimmed power-shields and coruscating arc lances. Their number fluctuates according to the vagaries of war but averages 30, and each has been nominated by an existing member, or brought forward by the Uncrowned Prince himself. Beyond their role as bodyguards, the Sheildbearers serve in an advisory role on and off the field of battle for whatever matters require, or attract, their Primarch's attention, and act as his heralds when he cannot, or need not, travel in person. Few doubt that in other circumstances all of them would have gone on to ranking positions within the legion.  
  
Rangers serve as outriders and pathfinders, expected to provide the legion with comprehensive assessments of local geography, infrastructure and enemy force disposition, with a focus on the details that regular scouting or enemy intelligence might miss or overlook. When not included in the main battleline they engage in counterintelligence operations and disrupt enemy logistics. When called to fight directly they serve in dedicated flanking squads armed with specialised wargear, or are distributed to provide on-site advice to sergeants and captains.  
  
Combat Doctrine  
Infantry-centric combined arms, defence in depth, large scale coordination, counterattacks.  
  
Combat deployments are rarely below company strength and commonly at Tercio scale, dominating control of the engagement, not through raw numbers but the superior application of those assets across the wider theater. Attritional combat and simple head-to-head engagements are considered the marks of poor leadership, or desperation.  
  
Volkite weapons maintain a special place in the legion's hearts for their symbolic value as near-archeotech devices and effectiveness against the hated orks and mutants The otherwise uncommon blind and infernus grenades are routinely used alongside the more traditional frag and krak. The new Maximus pattern plate has been eagerly adopted by the legion, though often modified to the Scythia sub-pattern that trades a degree of protection for greater speed, and superior mobility.  
  
Armour is not extensively used beyond transports and grav-craft, though the legion does maintain a significant number of land raiders, mostly in the Proteus-Beta pattern, favoured for its long range comm and auspex systems, and their own Ghrond pattern.  
  
Legion Beliefs and Practices  
The Colchian Creed emphasizes the preeminence of humanity, and unity as the path to a greater future. The state of anathema under which the xenos and mutant exist is expounded on. As humanity must be free from the predations and dominion of these creatures, so should none emulate them through vainglorious tyranny, or the holding of others in unjust bondage. Abhumans are accepted only by virtue of their genetic stability, and that several of several of them were deliberately engineered.  
  
Legionnaires clasp with the left hand, a Colchian tradition indicating friendship and shared purpose. Hair is usually braided close along the skull.  
  
Scholarship of the past is highly valued, both to uncover lost knowledge and to learn from the mistakes made. A significant body of conservators travel with the legion and are well regarded, while remembrancers are numerous and widely spread by the Primarch's command. Post-combat debriefings are extensive and detailed, the findings extracted added to the body of battle-lore gathered and compiled by the training cadres in the fortress monastery.  
  
Compliant worlds are given all possible assistance in rising to the standards of civilised Imperial worlds, and connecting to the trade, diplomatic and administrative web expanding from Terra and the Imperium's crownworlds. As the Legion advances, a rate admittedly slower than most other Legion though more consistent, it leaves behind a growing network of stable, developing worlds that keep supply lines running efficient and feed into each other's growth. When the Lord Commanders began to branch out with their own expeditionary sub-fleets, they were accompanied by extensive Imperial Army groups drawn from these worlds and already conversant with the Legion's practices and tactics.  
  
The Corinthian is a strong advocate of expanding the number of Rogue Trader Houses, seeing them as a powerful tool for both expanding the Imperium's reach and stabilizing newly compliant regions. Merchant Princess Shih Yang and Trader Militant Turgut Reis both operate under his patronage among and beyond the systems brought into compliance by the Knight Errant.  
  
In a similar manner, the Exploritors of the Mechanicum have found the Uncrowned Prince highly supportive of their mission and the Ark Lux Inventa is functionally a part of his fleet. Even without the presence of Martian Adepts, the legion will seek out potential Dark Age sites for investigation, and has been involved in more space hulk sterilisation and capture campaigns than any of its siblings.  
  
With the Emperor's blessing, Aries patronized factions of the tech-guilds and artificer lodges on Terra, bringing them back to his homeworld on his return from Terra and joining them with their Colchian cousins. Augmenting the mass production of the Mechanicum forges in-system, they allow the Legion to maintain its war footing with equipment levels at odds with their remote location or the rarity of skills required. Few others hold the capacity to construct new stormbird gunships, or maintain such a collection of volkite and archeotech weaponry.  
  
Recruitment and Flaws  
The majority of aspirants are drawn from Colchis in annual games, but it is the practice of the legion to conduct a recruitment trial on each world that willingly accepts Imperial compliance. Bio-alchem screening is conducted prior to any other testing to minimise rejection rates, and under normal circumstances a recruit will receive implants cultured from a single progenoid. The standard training cycle is ten years, Terran standard, and includes seek-and-destroy rangings into the wastes where senior neophytes compete to slay the rare ork that still emerges in these areas.  
  
The ability to react to the actions of other units or individuals without specific instruction is a prized attribute alongside situational awareness. Accurate marksmanship on the move or under close engagement conditions is a key area of training, second only to squad level coordination. Training exercises are largely team orientated and cooperative problem solving is expressly encouraged.  
  
The Knight's Errant melanochrone and mucranoid implants display heightened triggering sensitivity and slowed recession rates, giving the legionaries a consistently well weathered appearance, but granting above average environmental resilience. It is not uncommon for those in the XII legion to display mild hypervigilance traits.  
  
Notable Astartes  
_Ancient Tahgra, Equerry to the Primarch, Eldest of the Few, Old Silvermane._  
  
Born in the Ibirean hive stacks built to rehouse those displaced by the Unification War’s battles, Tahgra was an orphan by six, leading a gang of lean and hungry youths by twelve, and still managed to sit, and pass, scholum examinations at each key stage. At 13 he was able to evade Imperial agents for three months before being cornered and discovering why they were after him.  
  
One of the initial recruits that formed the original Legiones Astartes, and the only member of that group not interned within a dreadnought sarcophagus or dead, the Ancient is possibly the most experienced soldier in the Great Crusade. His leadership and tactical skills saw him rise steadily through the ranks, and become the first legionnaire to become Praetor without pre-assignment to an officer rank.  
  
Upon meeting his Primarch he stepped back from command without a second thought, and was raised to a new position at Aries’ side in turn.  
  
The years gone by and experience gained have honed him to a bare edge, ground down his ragged edges: tempered his ambition, inured him against twists of happenstance, removed the burden of having to prove anything from him. He has tasted defeat, felt the pain of loss and of survival where others have fallen. His past is a trail littered with those parts of himself he has cast aside in the name of duty and the dream of Unification.  
  
He tries to ignore how young so many of his brothers are, the reverence they pay to him, the worry that his body may eventually fail him while there are still stars beyond humanity’s reach.  
  
Currently 567 legionnaires can track their gene-seed back to the single progenoid removed from him, forming the Band known a the Unending.  
  
_Valus Aiken: The Ranger-Wright, Exploritor Honourary_  
  
Colchis born and a rising star even while only an apprentice to the tech-prospectors that sought out the relics and legacies of his world's past, the young Aiken repeatedly demonstrated a talent for reading the landscape to identify otherwise obscured sites, and extrapolating from fragmented records and the finds of his peers to locate potential new sites. When finds were made there were few outside the oldest prospectors that could sift the gold from the dross as quickly or accurately, or determine how new devices functioned.  
  
With the coming of the Emperor, Valus was among the aspirants that rushed to follow Aries to the stars and continue his mission. Noted by both the scout companies and nascent Arsenal for his potential, the young marine looked, for a time, to be caught between both yet neither until his company was assigned to the newly arrived fleet of Magos Exploritor Serran-Rho. The Archmagos immediately recognised the value of his twin areas of expertise and brought him to the attention of his primarch.  
  
Still straddling both groups within his legion and the patronage of the Exploritors, Valus continues to build an impressive role of honours for his discoveries and his application of one skill set to missions based on the other: plotting the forgotten service tunnels into the Citadel of the Ur-Archon of Pell, reinitialising the dust buried rad-gyres that broke the Hrud migration on Thon, and solving the puzzle of the Labyrinthine Way, ending the blood-price paid by the people of Kreet to keep its horror dormant while maintaining the integrity of its ancient auto-simulacra technologies.


	2. The Furthest Shore

Colchis

Location - Segmentum Ultima, far galactic east  
Size (Terra relative) - 1.01  
Average temp. - 23*C  
Population - 2.2 billion  
  
  
Frontiers have ever called to Humanity, and even in the glories and comfort of the gilt Age of Technology there were still those who sought to push out, to see what lay further on and walk on distant shores.  
  
On Colchis long rugged peninsula and wide inland seas broke up the continents, harsh mountain ranges and stony deserts dominating the inner territories, hemmed in and crested by forbidding forests and icy rivers. Deep oceans washed against the dark cliffs that buttressed strips of golden savanna and windswept steppe, split by steep waterfalls and boulder-strewn river deltas. Ore deposits were small and lay widely scattered but rich and close to the surface, granite in a half dozen shades was quarried to build gleaming new cities for the adventurous, leaving mesa where there had once been mountains. Farms, ranches and fishing fleets fed a rapidly growing population and supplied the ships that stopped at the orbital yards before striking out ever further. When the end of that gilded age came, youthful Colchis sat on the borderlands of civilisation and wilderness, the gateway to the unknown.  
  
The warp-throes of psykers, few though they thankfully were, gutted their communities and inflicted mutations of mind and body on man and beast. Broken trade links left the most advanced machines and devices impossible to replace and crippled whole sectors of the planetary economy.  
  
Then came the dread events of Heavenfall.  
  
Disgorged and shattered by the new turbulence of the warp, the fragmented carcass of a space hulk fell into Colchis’ orbital path. The world's remaining orbital and trans-atmospheric assets were spent upon it, destroying the largest pieces or redirecting them into the sun or outer system. While most of what remained in Colchis' path burned up as it fell through the atmosphere, other fragments struck the land and open seas, casting up dust plumes and tidal waves even where the force of their impact did not level settlements and reroute rivers. Into the dark corners of the world, those blasted mountain ranges and worthless wastes, the true and worst legacy of the hulk took root.  
  
Civilisation had not been broken by the trials set upon it however, bloodied though it was, for all that its expertise and knowledge was halfway lost. The mutants were contained and being dealt with, the remaining psykers hunted down and neutralised. Emergency measures kept the peace, and recovery to something that was at least sustainable progressed.  
  
Down from the mountains they cameas , feral orks in a dozen competing hordes, driven to waaagh by proximity but cut off from one another save by narrow paths and winding defiles. Villages and farms burned, mines were overrun, towns and cities left in broken ruin merely as collateral damage to the ork's own battles against each other.  
  
Militia armies were hastily raised from the surviving cities and the refugee camps growing around them, miners and construction workers became combat engineers raising defences, herdsmen and hunters formed scouting teams to track the green menace and pick at its flanks. Security, survival and industrial gear was repurposed for combat, and civilian vehicles modified into troop transports and attack bikes. Industries were repurposed to make the first true war-gear, and the people relearned the dark art of war. Between the first human to fall to them and the last ork horde being broken and burnt out of its hold-fast, the planet would have seen decades of war, leaving lands ruined and humanity brought to the brink. New weapons and martial traditions developed, the relationships between settlements and outposts eveloved, and the stories of the past became little better than myth.  
  
From these changes and events would arise the technobarbarian nations, caravan-tribes and city-states that were the inheritors of Colchis in the new Age of strife. The orks would never be completely eradicated; there would always be a need somewhere to respond to the predations of rogue mobs, and occasional war those rare warbands that grew undetected until they launched themselves down form the wastes. During the chaos of the Ork War mutants had escaped from detention and formed tribes in the deep forests, joined in time by others of their kind born during that wretched time and rogue psykers running from their fate. These unclean tribes presented a constant threat on the periphery of human territory as they bred and raided, sometimes uniting against Humanity and sometimes waning to scattered remnants after pogroms launched against them.  
  
Human nature saw skirmishes and petty wars forever ebb and flow between the successors over resources, farmland and the tribute of lesser settlements, just as they likewise allied, aided and traded between each other. Miners, foresters and herders risked the dangers of the periphery to feed and fuel the settlements' needs, land along the rivers was tended by the inhabitants of farm-forts ever watchful for danger, while relic hunting prospectors chanced their lives searching out the relics and knowledge of the past that were so valued in this lessened age.


	3. Early Life, Part 1

When finally released from the warp's clutches, the capsule bearing the twelfth primarch would at last come to land in the foothills which marked the northernmost extent of Colchis' human civilisation. Having torn a fiery path through the morning sky and plowed a mile long furrow in the soil, the thunderous force of his arrival was seen even from the city-states of the south and felt or heard for miles in all directions.

From among a band of shepherds searching for their now scattered and panicked flock, would come the youngest of them, out of curiosity and boredom, and be amazed by what they saw. The scorched and battered pod drove all remaining thought for the lost animals from their minds as they imagined the riches that might be offered for such a large piece of archeotech, and one from the heavens no less. When they had ridden back to the others and explained what they had found, there was much excitement and speculation as they rode to it. Dismounting their ponies and scrambling down into the trench to investigate their great find further, the next discovery could not have surprised them more.  
  
From a dripping portal in its side emerged an infant attracted by their voices, barely old enough to walk and still soaked from the amnio-fluid that had cushioned him through his entry to the world. Their leader and matriarch, Idyia, threw her cloak around the child and gathered him to her, told the others to set camp and shook them from their pause.  
  
Mother thrice over and grandmother to more still, Idyia had little room left for curiosity or shock to get in the way of caring for a child. There was work to be done, plans to be made, the boy was one of theirs now. Would they challenge her on this? They would not, and the youngsters were sent back out again to gather the livestock. Aries she named him that night, after myth, for he was already crowned with soft curls the colour of spun yellow gold.  
  
In a week he was walking by himself, in a month speaking words, and using whole sentences after two. His growth too was fast, and noticed with alarm. ‘Mutant’, whispered some when Idyia was out of sight. In sight of the nearest township they raised their concerns, made their fears known, and the child that fell from the sky was brought forth and examined. No marks or aberration was found on his skin, his limbs were straight and even, eyes clear, humors balanced. ‘Human’ his adopted mother firmly declared, and it was so. The next day they traded the whole of the flock they had recovered and half their ponies for a cart that moved under its own power and supplies for the journey to come.  
  
In Myrdea, the great city of pink stone that boasted the Wall Unseen and the Library of Iason, they revealed the capsule in the grand plaza at its heart, called on the lore-holders and relic keepers, sent runners to the technomancers in their tower and the Ward-Barons in their manses. Crowds came to see the treasure, and as the story of its arrival was retold and spread so it grew and changed till few knew even a part of what was true save the ones that brought it. The Mighty and the High of the city arrived quickly, pushed back the crowd and sought their own answers, listened then ordered their servants bring the artifact to the Speakers’ Chamber with those that accompanied it.  
  
In that amphitheater of carved granite and doors that opened at a person’s approach, they inquired deeper, examined it closer, demanded to know if the rumour of a star-orphaned child was true and to see him if it was. Idyai was uncowed by their pomp and finery, had fought and raised her family in the shadow of the wastes, knew her rights and would have them. Aries was led forward and seen in full while she stood guard over him, hands on his shoulders and a willful spirit in her eyes at odds with her age. The primarch-child watched around him with curiosity, listened, and spoke when talked to, asked questions of his adopted cousins while the adults debated.  
  
A deal was reached for the pod, the bidding fierce and the shepherds leaving rich to the last. The child too was the subject of debate, some sought him with avarice for they knew he heralded great things, but he held close and tight to the one that cared for him and she mocked their conducted, shamed them to dutifulness with her hard words. Better, said those more upstanding, that he makes his own choice when he becomes a man, and vowed their doors open to him as he wished. With her new wealth Idyai established a household in the city, hired those few staff she needed and set to the raising of her star-born son.  
  
When the young primarch had absorbed all the street-teachers could impart, tutors were hired to feed his curiosity. Every lesson was remembered and built on, shrewd questions were asked, and intuitive leaps of logic made, so that soon even they were at a loss as to what else to teach him. The Library was opened to him and the curators directed him through its data-stacks, scrolls and codices.  
  
The growth of his body was no slower than that of his mind. In ten years he would be taller than any man before, stronger and more tireless than any thought could be. Clean limbed he was and handsomely proportioned, well muscled from the sports and games he excelled in even when the equipment was scaled and weighted for him. His golden hair copied by young men in emulation of him.  
  
In the city militia he progressed like one born to it, learned tactics and drills swiftly, the use of each weapon be it ranged or melee, and the leadership of men. The standing warhost furthered his training and witnessed no slower a rise, nor one less worthy, then the scouts and combat engineers in turn. Purges, retaliations and defences against ork and mutant both proved the skills seen in the yard and on the range, cemented his reputation. The elite of the city’s soldiers invited him to take their trials and tests. Upon his acceptance and initiation, a suit of warplate was forged for him, half powered and imbued with uncommon devices, the mark of that elite's ability, rank and skill.  
  
Amid all this he sought out the merchants from abroad to ask about the wider world and its people, learned the low streets and their gang-laws no less than high society and its etiquette. While young enough he played with the other children and partook in their games, then the sports of adults and competing athletes. His eloquent speech and fine manners saw him lauded, just as his open and companionable nature saw him embraced. Emissaries from other cities and nations traveled to meet him, invited him to travel to them.  
  
Restless, and having conducted with deep sorrow the funeral of his mother who had at last succumbed to old age and hard life, he departed with the relic seekers, learned their skills and techniques. On these outings he passed the farms and mines that lay exposed as he had when his capsule crashed upon the world. Visiting the still visible scar in the landscape where he was found, he commited to traveling, taking up the offers made to him earlier and seeking an answer to the drive and mood that held him back from any settled life. Thought the leaders of Myrdea were dismayed and sought for him to remain, he promised them his return and left with the next caravan to depart.


	4. Early llife, Part 2

Here the legend of Aries was truly born and nurtured, the achievements of his travels entering the folklore of the world. On the Splintered Isles he was hosted by the Hundred Kings, debated with their sages and was granted command of their host against horned marauders from across the sea. The great port of Vor Agar was saved when he dove deep beneath the waves to reopen the siphon that drew in cooling water for the ancient reactor beneath it, then taught the technicians who tended it new lore and techniques. He journeyed with the Great Expedition of Gias the Younger that uncovered the Vault of Eyes and its great trove from the time of the Ork War. A double score of farms and mines were saved when his presence turned the tide against their attackers, and in the wake of a dozen disasters he aided those that survived.  
  
Across his travels he gained perspective on the lives of Colchis’ people, saw how their isolation and rivalries hindered any chance to overcome the threats stacked against them. So formed the seed of his future plans, and focused the direction of his restless drive.  
  
Returning to Myrdea he was feted and granted high honours, feasted and encouraged to tell of all he has seen and done. Later, in the Speakers’ Chamber he argued the need for a new era of cooperation and unity, that together each city and nation could do what they could not apart. The technologies hoarded by one might help the many, greater trade would make all richer and see fewer hanger, their armies joined in common purpose could push the ork and mutant to the brink, and perhaps even beyond. These ideas were new and curious in the minds of those he spoke to, but in the face of a primarch’s conviction and oration they were brought round to his notions and convinced of his wisdom. They opened their vaults and secrets to one another and the city was made greater for it. So began the Age of Unity on Colchis.  
  
Emissaries and heralds we dispatched on arduous quests to spread word of the Corinthian’s plan, first to those that he had dealt with and aided during his own travels, then further afield as agreements and alliances were formed, the reluctant convinced and eager embraced.  
  
The armies were always improved on first, to secure routes for safer travel and trade. The las-foundry of Khu was opened itself to the needs of those beyond its vault-gate, the armourers of the Myrdea shared the rare arts of their demiplate, and veterans from the archipelagos traveled far to share their shrewd tactical acumen. Joint training exercises and cooperative missions built bonds of friendship and honour between the forces of once rival states. Patrols from mutual borders were turned to face the truer threats from beyond the lands of Humanity.  
  
Tech-magi, diviners of function, artisans of high craft, all could now move freely and without risk of capture of assault, the Pact of Aiza, sworn on the wreckage of the fallen city’s great dataloom letting knowledge be shared freely in the first time remembered. Skills and wisdom spread among new apprentices, journeymen came together and pooled their understanding, masters established new manufactories in shared endeavour.  
  
Feeding all these works were fresh mining camps, quarries and farms. There was prosperity by the standards of the time, and through it all the Dawn Star was ever abroad. His presence inspired, his example uplifted. No project was beyond his input, no scrap of learning unworthy of his study, no threat escaped his wrath. On the battlefield, in the workshop, among the building projects, he was the exemplar of his own dream and the buttress to people’s will in times of trial or hardship.  
  
When the orks, tribes pushed together in the deeper wastes, metastasized into a waaagh that threatened to overrun the Ismuth of Bel, Aries led the counterattack and slew the warlord at its heart, driving then into the sea then purging the place of their origin with fire and al-chemestric reagents. When the insidious Jharilla led her subtle twistkin to infiltrate the new armies and outpost, Aries noticed the ripples of her actions and moved to isolate them without their ken, cutting them down in sudden crossfire and ambush without ever having set eyes upon them. When the Duke of Lendorf took all that was offered but gave naught in return, Aries roused the people against him, defeated his dishonour with argument and debate. Witnessed his casting down by the people and the raising of the Councilors Elect in his place.  
  
For his great achievements, and for the way he enabled them to achieve victories of their own, the people hailed him as High King, Euxinos in their ancient tongue after the seal of black metal and obsidian that was said to be held by the rulers of Colchis in the Age of Myth. He declared, though, that he could not wear the crown offered, for the world had not yet been returned to the glory of the past and he could accept such an honour till it was done. This circlet was formed from segments of polished granite in every shade mounted in black steel, and would sit center amid his councils and debates, talisman of his hope and vision.  
  
Short years later a new star was seen that remained in the sky even as the sun rose, and many wondered what it was and heralded. Come midday a falling point of light was seen that came down towards Myrdea and the people were afraid, calling out to their beloved leader for understanding or safety. The Wall Unseen was raised to cover the city and scholars directed to turn their probing artifacts towards it.  
  
As it approached it was revealed to be a single craft as in the stories of old, that flew to the heavens and were ridden by even the poorest of men. Great and golden it was, raptor winged and blazing with the sunlight reflected from it. The veterans assembled in their humming warplate, Aries at the fore, and messages were dispatched to all other corners of the world to be on their guard. On landing in the grasslands outside the city four figures emerged in gleaming and gilded plate, with tall spears in their hands, watchful and silent and second only to the Uncrowned Prince himself in stature.  
  
Then He emerged and all were blinded for a moment by His presence before they could look upon Him and be awed.  
  
The Emperor and Aries walked forward and met midpoint, greeting one another with gestures of peace. Then they did walk a circuit of the city and converse, though what passed is not recorded. On the return to their starting point a runner was dispatched to Aries’ household and items brought forth. The crown he rent asunder and let fallen to the ground, the codestrand keys to his manse and workshop were whispered to his father’s ear. The Emperor presented a bundle of white oak bound with ribbons of iron and gold, then unclasped his cloak and set it about his son’s shoulders as he knelt. Both let a drip of blood mix within a bowl of wine and drank from it.  
  
So was Colchis and the twelfth primarch brought into the Imperium, the news spreading quickly and celebrations declared. Aries returned to Terra with his father and delved into the studies available, met and embraced his gene-kin, entered the forges of the Terrawatt Clan’s master smiths and learned under them. Presented with the legion created in his image he found them good and worthy of pride, resettling them upon his homeworld and teaching them the ways of it before embarking on the continuation of the Emperor’s great design.


	5. Chapter 5

There is a pict of the Euxinos, taken in a moment of chance opportunity by a remembrancer, that would go on to hang in the Imperial Palace itself.

Imagine, if you will, the training halls on board his flagship. A hundred meters to a side, the walls all anodized metal engraved with the warsigns of battalions, tercios, companies, bands. The floor is one single slab of granite, the pale blue of the Cloud Cliffs, engraved with rows of training rings, worn smooth in patterns marking its use. You're near the middle, the chamber busy and loud with exertions in the background.

A half dozen astartes stand around in hide breeches, hands and feet wrapped. They're in fine spirits, relaxed but attentive to the pair that had just been grappling in front of them and are now circling, assessing the other for advantage with focused intent. Both have the braids of Battle Captains and run with sweat, the one facing towards you has shrapnel scars across their features and eyes that glow with the cold green of bionic implants. 

But all this is secondary, ornamental to the main subject. Look closely, careful, and all do when faced with such a demigod, and take in the details of him.

The Corinthian stands casually, stripped to the waist, the spear Arete resting over a shoulder. His head lies tilted slightly towards the legionnaire next to him, mid laugh at some wittisism, as they watch the sparring pair. Ruffled curls of spun gold, shorter now than in his youth, contrast the richness of his olive skin, draw out the dark honey of his eyes. Notice the lines of his face, young here for all his ageless mien, strong but never harsh or sharp even in the midst of wrath. See the vitality in him even at rest, the banked potential ready be loosed.

Now capture that image, that perfect portrait. Track it your mind's eyes as it's seen and word of it spreads: Aries himself praises it, the visiting Sigilite admires its proportions and composition, a letter from the Seneschal of the Imperial Household requests its dispatch to Terra. The Emperor's critical eye finding it worthy of display.


	6. Complince of the Golden Apostles

The war was over, only the battles remained.

The leadership of the Golden Apostles had been skilled in the planning of their defences, made keen use of every advantage in the local warp routes' patterns to hinder the compliance fleet's advance and reinforce any world they approached. Strategically vital to the continuation of the Great Crusade in that region of the galaxy, the Imperial Army forces had been selected for freshness and consistent rolls of honour. Ten regiments of the Outremans, two entire Panpac Lifehosts, five Adamantiphract armour Columns, the complete might of Knight-King Artar.

The 510th stalled in the third system, held at bay by the need to defend their previous conquests and halt reinforcement of the current battlezone. The human/xeno civilisation was going to bleed them slowly in an inexorable grip. Lord General Orathu swallowed her pride, acknowledged her defeat, and requested aid from the Legiones Astartes.

Two replies reached the astropaths of the 510th closely enough as to be simultaneous. After arriving short weeks later, the X and XII Legions agree to share battle honours.

Whatever might have been prepared for, for all their planning and sagacity, the warleaders of the Gilded worlds could not have envisioned astartes in the field. Were not prepared to have their strategy and tactics tested by a Primarch's superlative acuity. The third world was lost to them two months after the Legions arrive, by which point they had greater concerns occupying their minds.

A dozen strike cruisers and fifty escorts maraud the remaining systems in a pattern of hit and run attacks that throw off any attempt at prediction, render the core advantage of the defenders useless for the want of a target they could engage or point they can focus defences on. Each engagement takes a few more of their vessels and the one attempt to force the Imperial fleet before it could move on was routed by the reinforcing presence of a Lightbringers battle barge and the flagship of the Knights Errant in the system.

\- - - - -

Ripples of bolt shell detonations tear at the defensive lines established by the Apostolate soldiery, swift flowing squads of Knights Errant running interference for Lightbringer fire teams sprinting for the barricades. Attempts to bring the anti-armour gun platforms to bear on the superheavy infantry are quickly punished by focused retaliatory fire.

Up close, flamers and plasma guns shatter resistance, meltaguns a devastating overkill against the centauroid aliens and their human compatriots. There is no consolidation by the Lightbringers, only momentum, a burning fist driving a bow wave of death ahead and leaving a wake of smoke and ruin behind. Knight Errant companies in Scythian plate form elastic cordons around them, enveloping isolated pockets of resistance, drawing heavier units out of position into open lines of fire, hardening against flanking attempts. Bikers in shining brass and blazing orange breach the battlelines through the gaps created, penetrate deeply to sow grenades amid slow moving support units, harass the armour moving to counter just such a breakthrough by the invader's infantry. Battle is fully joined, the Golden Apostles have committed themselves absolutely to this engagement last engagement, deployed all reserves.

The growl and subsonic reverberation of a massed Imperial armour formation are felt and heard long before they emerge into sight, the tsunami to finish what the wave began.

\- - - - -

Legs already in motion Cyrus the Herald, Lord Consort of the Fireheart, kept pace with the Illuminator as he dropped from the running board, a demi-squad of veterans at his back as they charged one of the last defencive pockets. Dragonfire bolts roared in expanding bursts of flame, casting the foe into screaming chaos as the Lightbringers strike them, the tip of Deadly Art pinning an officer to the rockrete before swinging to end a suicidal charge. Chainblade and hand flamer cast down those that denied the Emperor's dream, a warning pyre to others that might imagine they could do the same.

Battle joy and combat stims sang in his veins, clarified the world of distraction and brought his senses to a razor's edge. The sound of tortured metal and collapsing stonework drew their gazes to the opposite end of the plaza and the death throes of a scythe legged quad-walker.

Aries Euxinos, Primarch of the XII, is upon it, grappling a leg that strains against his hold as the gleaming tip of Arete pierces through armour and hull to reach the pilot. His foe undone, he raises his weapon in salute of the warriors around him, calls the last charge to bring the final world to compliance. The electrum and orichalcum of the Deimosian Plate seem to glow in the fires of battle, a hundred carved amber details holding the light amid pearl granite plaques. His own stylised face fronts the warhelm, set ever on the edge of wrath, and a tiny diamond tear runs down a cheek for each world that has rejected his open hand.

\- - - - -

The feasting hall on the Unyielding Defiance was silent but for the strum of harp strings. the great celebration had all but ended ended and only the high table remained, ranking officers from the two legions and Army units, listening to a composition the Lightbringer's Herald created in honour of the victory past.

Aries reclined his head against the back of his oaken throne and considered the man. It was good fortune that he had been able to meet him at last, the mortal that held his sister's hearts. A skilled warlord certainly, and a soul that would sit at peace once the Crusade eventually ended. A fine man. In another life the Ctesiphonian might have stood by his own side, but as was he would not count it poor spoils to call him friend. He had not doubted his sister's discernment, though others he knew had, and openly. An idea occurred, the Lord Commanders were ready to move beyond his immediate gaze, and first steps where best taken slowly.

"Cyrus," he spoke as the last note faded, standing to signal the feast’s end. "I'd speak with you in my quarters. A private matter for when you return to my sister."


End file.
